Project Sleeper

[Ashpool]

Start Date: 8/02/04

Stage 1: Planning

JUST got my PC-71 today from UPS. In perfect condition, and it was a LOT lighter than I percieved it to be The build quality is absolutely astounding on this thing!

After wasting a good 10 minutes trying to get the side panels off (and making a lot of smudges ), I finally managed to peek inside, and it's the perfect amount of space for me. Not so tiny inside that I can't get to anything without taking anything out, but not so big that everything will be stretched out. Awesome.

However, the first thing that I noticed was that the stock fans (which I'm hoping to replace) are stuck to the case with snap rivets. Damnit. Gotta drill those out if I wanna get them out.

I ask: What are the CFM/Watt ratings for the stock fans inside? They're ADDA... Something.

First thing I'm gonna do with this thing, I'm drilling out the stock fan grills, no doubt about it. Even though they're a lot less severe as in Antec or other cases, I am IMMEDIATELY cutting those out. Maybe even the side vents in the lower back and bottom of the power supply cage? They look like they could get some gutting too. If I do end up chopping those lower back vents, I'm definitly stretching some hacked-up A/C filters on those, they look like serious debris/dust magnets if they were wide open.







I'm NOT going to paint this case. No way, no how. I hear that Anodization has a special coating over it that can make any paint start to bubble and crack after ~8 months. And it's too damn cool to begin with, it started the whole Sleeper idea I had behind it

So with fans (still sticking with aircooling!)...

Intake
Lower Front: 2x YS-Tech 80's (48.5CFM each, 97CFM Total)
Side: 2x YS-Tech 92's (66.3CFM each, 132.6CFM Total)
Total Intake: 229.6CFM (in a perfect world, of course )

Exhaust
Top Back: 2x Panaflo 12L 80's (24CFM each, 48CFM Total)
Top TOP Back: 2x Panaflo 12L 80's (24CFM each, 48CFM Total)
Top Blowhole: 2x YL-Tech 120's (64CFM each, 128CFM Total)
Total Exhaust: 224CFM

So it'll be ~6CFM extra intake, slight positive case pressure. Enough that it won't seriously screw everything up, but enough that it'll reduce dust in the nooks and crannies. I'm only keeping the side intakes just to even out the case pressure, if I were to take those out, all the intake duties would be left to the front intakes, and I don't think I'd want two LOUDASS fans doing all that work. Share the load, y'know?

Now, I'm not going to bother using the case for cooling down my hard drives, so I already yanked out the hard drive cage. It'll block a bit of intake flow, and I don't think I'd want warm air to already enter my case I'll instead have Vantec Vortexes cooling down my (what will be) two SATA drives - one 80GB, one 160GB, JBOD'd together as one virtual 240GB drive. In the future, I'll probably have an external 250GB drive to back those two up, very likely just an IDE/SATA drive stuck in an external enclosure.

To recap/add:
What I WILL be doing:
1) Taking out internal hard drive cage (using 5.25" bays for drive coolers)
2) Drilling out stock fan grills. We all know they're just there to piss us mod folks off
3) Wipe it down and wax this beauty. I know I can do that to it without the anodization screwing it up.

What I WON'T be doing:
1) Painting it. Nooooo way.
2) Lights. Gh3y to deh MAXX0RZ

Any suggestions? I want to get a project done RIGHT for once.

Edit: If anybody knows what "sleeper" means and what it has to do with this project, you will get a +1 to your post.